Posts Tagged ‘news’

I’ve been a reporter for more than a dozen years now. I am OK with the fact that people don’t believe everything they read. But I don’t understand how people think politicians are more believable than the media that covers them.

Politicians lie. That’s all there is to it. Every single one of them. I don’t care how wonderful your candidate is, they are a liar. They have lots of reasons to get you to believe what they’re telling you. It all has to do with money and power. And occasionally mistresses. That’s really all they want.

This short satirical video explains it all.

And yet journalists are condemned as biased whenever they point out these shortcomings. In my admittedly short tenure, I have met some reporters who were biased against certain politicians. Some had a David complex, looking for a Goliath to slay. But most of the reporters I know don’t care who is in office as long as they give a good quote. They don’t have a horse in the race. If they are on anybody’s side at all, it’s the taxpayer.

Journalists make mistakes. I have made my share. But one mistake will make people condemn a news source, while politicians can make all the mistakes in the world and be untouchable. Maybe it’s because politicians have more charisma than most journalists. Maybe people just believe what they want to believe. No matter what, I’ll never understand why journalists are trusted less than the politicians they report on.

Like this:

When writing political articles – particularly election previews – I always strive for fairness. And after a while, some of the politicians know that about me. And they’ve told that to me…but lately I’ve been doubting their intentions.

I always get both sides. In election previews, I do a word count so that one candidate doesn’t get too many more words.

Some people have said to me “Your article was really fair.” At first, I took that as a compliment. After a while, I started looking at it as a left-handed compliment. As in, “I really wish you had only told my side of things, but your article was fair.” One person told me I walked a razor line with one of my stories.

Now, I’m seeing another side – a veiled threat. For example: I’ve heard “I know you’ve always been fair” several times. But sometimes I think the full thought is “I know you’ve always been fair…and you better let me have my say as well.”